Warner Caslet
Warner Caslet was a former Havenite citizen and officer in the People's Navy, who went into exile and later became a Grayson citizen and an officer of the Grayson Space Navy. Physical appearance Caslet was described as a wiry, dark-haired man ( ) with hazel eyes. ( ) Biography A native of the planet Danville in the Paroa System, Warner Caslet entered the Havenite naval academy to become an officer of the People's Navy. Upon graduation, Caslet's oath as an officer was administered by Fleet Admiral Amos Parnell, the Chief of Naval Operations at that time. ( ) Caslet rose through the ranks, reaching the rank of Commander and becoming the commanding officer of the light cruiser [[PNS Vaubon|PNS Vaubon]] sometime before the Harris Assassination and the Committee of Public Safety's assumption to power over the People's Republic. Unlike other higher-ranking commanding officers of the People's Navy, Caslet and his command crew were left almost untouched by the Committee's purges of the Navy, as Vaubon was small and independent enough to not attract the attention of the new regime. Despite this, Caslet made a point of either following the Committee's guidelines regarding forms of address or calling his subordinates by their given names; in the case of Lieutenant Shannon Foraker, he personally pleaded with Denis Jourdain, Vaubon's People's Commissioner, to turn a blind eye to her lapses into pre-revolutionary speech, as her technical abilities were too important for Vaubon and the Navy in general. ( , ) Caslet's faith in Shannon Foraker's abilities would prove good during Operations Stalking Horse and Dagger, as it was Foraker who first identified the Grayson superdreadnoughts diverted to reestablish Allied control over Candor and Minette, as well as detecting (though too late) the presence of another six Grayson superdreadnoughts within the "disorganized" Grayson Space Navy forces which proceeded to intercept Vice Admiral Alexander Thurston's Task Force 14 during the Fourth Battle of Yeltsin's Star. ( ) Still in command of Vaubon, Commander Caslet was deployed to the Silesian Confederacy around 1908 PD, as Vaubon was assigned to scout the Confederacy's systems in advance of Admiral Javier Giscard's Task Force 29. During the reconnaissance of the Arendscheldt System, Vaubon encountered the drifting wreck of the Trianon Combine-registered merchantman [[TCMS Erewhon|TCMS Erewhon]], which had been attacked by pirates. The carnage found onboard Erewhon led Commander Caslet to request that Vaubon be allowed to pursue and destroy the pirates which had attacked the freighter, an action Admiral Giscard would authorize. While successful at first, destroying a pirate vessel and finding through the Manticoran crewmen captured by the pirates that they belonged to Andre Warnecke's "privateer" squadron, Commander Caslet would find himself and Vaubon in a serious dilemma, as a group of pirate vessels were found attacking a Manticoran merchant vessel in the Schiller System. Despite his own standing orders to attack Manticoran commerce in the Confederacy, Caslet succeeded in convincing Commissioner Jourdain to authorize him to attack the pirates, but his gallant action turned into disaster when the Manticoran merchantman revealed herself as the Q-ship [[HMAMC Wayfarer|HMAMC Wayfarer]], under the command of Captain Honor Harrington, who requested the surrender of Vaubon once the pirates were dealt with. With Vaubon in Manticoran hands, Commander Caslet and his senior officers remained onboard Wayfarer as "guests" of the Royal Manticoran Navy until they could be sent to a POW camp. However, the collaboration Caslet and his officers gave to Harrington in her own efforts to deal with Warnecke and his pirates in Sidemore, as well as the treatment Vaubon gave to the Manticoran nationals she rescued from Warnecke's ships, led Captain Harrington to release Caslet and the remaining senior officers of Vaubon to the People's Republic, declaring that Wayfarer had been running under an Andermani IFF code when Vaubon joined the Battle of Schiller. ( ) Upon his return to the People's Republic, Commander Caslet fell under suspicion by the Office of State Security for having lost his vessel while trying to assist a Manticoran ship, despite Captain Harrington's stated reasons for his repatriation. The Navy did not give Caslet a new command, but sent him to the Barnett System to serve as the operations officer in Admiral Thomas Theisman's staff. While Theisman had an excellent professional and personal opinion of Caslet, he regarded the commander's assignment to his staff as a sign that the Republic's leaders considered him and his command as expendable. Denis LePic, Theisman's Commissioner, also had a good impression of Caslet and made a point of rehabilitating him, albeit slowly, in his reports to StateSec and the Committee. It was Caslet, in concert with Captain Megan Hathaway, who informed Theisman that [[PNS Tepes|PNS Tepes]] was being sent to Barnett with Committeewoman Cordelia Ransom onboard. Following Admiral Lester Tourville's return from his raid of the Adler System with Commodore Harrington as a prisoner, and Committeewoman Ransom's orders to transfer Harrington to StateSec's custody for possible execution, Commander Caslet protested vehemently before Admiral Theisman and Commissioner LePic. This action gained him the attention of Ransom, who ordered him to accompany her and the prisoners onboard Tepes to the prison planet Hades. Onboard Tepes, Caslet routinely visited the Manticoran prisoners, and it was during one of these visits when Horace Harkness launched his escape attempt. Caught in the middle, Warner Caslet had no choice but to join the Manticorans and Graysons in their escape from Tepes, and found himself together with Honor Harrington and her fellow escapees on Hades. ( ) Elysian Space Navy Caslet would remain a part of Harrington's escapee group for the following months, and relocated to Camp Inferno once contact was made with its inmates. From Inferno, Caslet participated in the assault against StateSec's base in Styx Island. Despite his actions, Caslet's nationality and patriotism, and his persistent use of the People's Navy's uniform caused distrust in many of Hell's inmates, to the point that Honor Harrington was forced to provide "additional protection" for Caslet against any possible attack by the other liberated prisoners. One of Hades' prisoners turned out to be Admiral Amos Parnell, who finally made Caslet understand that his participation in the prisoners' breakout from Tepes prevented him from ever returning to Haven without being held as a traitor, and that in any event the People's Republic did not deserve the efforts and suffering of people like him, who ultimately had the freedom of conscience and choice to decide what to do with their own lives. As one of the most experienced naval officers in Hades, Caslet was also involved with the training and organization of the "Elysian Space Navy", but he was not given command of one of the ESN's captured StateSec vessels, instead being assigned as [[ENS Farnese|ENS Farnese]]'s executive officer under Honor Harrington. In that capacity, Caslet participated in the Battle of Cerberus, and shortly after that he joined the other prisoners to San Martin and repatriation into the Alliance. ( ) Relocation to Grayson In 1913 PD, as it happened with most of the other Havenite and non-Allied nationals of the Elysian Space Navy, Commander Caslet was incorporated into the Grayson Space Navy as a member of the "Protector's Own Squadron", an arrangement which included his relocation to the Protectorate of Grayson and adoption of Grayson citizenship. As a Grayson citizen, Caslet took interest in local political developments and saw the rise of Steadholder Mueller as a threat to both Protector Benjamin IX and the war effort. Shortly after joining the GSN, Caslet was promoted to Captain and remained a member of the Protector's Own Squadron under the de-facto command of another Havenite defector, Admiral Alfredo Yu. ( ) By 1919 PD, he had become a Rear Admiral and served as commanding officer of the Protector's Own's First Battle Squadron during the Second Battle of Marsh. ( ) In 1920 PD, he attended the state funeral of Howard Clinkscales. ( ) Service Record People's Navy Promotions * Commander Posts and duties * Commanding Officer, PNS Vaubon - 1907-1909 PD * prisoner of war - 1909 PD * Operations Officer, Barnett System Defense Command - 1910-1911 PD * liaison officer to prisoners, Secretary of Public Information's staff (temporary assignment) - 1911 PD ESN / GSN Promotions As there were no promotions in the Elysian Space Navy, Caslet acted with the Commander's rank he obtained in the People's Navy. * Captain - 1914 PD * Rear Admiral - in or before 1919 PD Posts * Executive Officer (Prize Master's) and de facto flag captain, ENS Farnese, Elysian Space Navy - 1913 PD * a ship command, Protector's Own Squadron - 1914 PD * Commanding Officer, First Battle Squadron, Protector's Own Squadron - 1919 PD References Caslet, Warner Caslet, Warner Caslet, Warner Caslet, Warner Caslet, Warner Caslet, Warner Caslet, Warner Category:Associates of Honor Harrington